One Of These 62 Songwriters Will Receive The First Grammy Award For Songwriter Of The Year

Desmond Child, James Fauntleroy, Natalie Hemby, Hillary Lindsey, Shane McAnally, Julia Michaels, and Justin Tranter are among the 62 songwriters or songwriting teams competing for the newly created Grammy Award for songwriter of the year, non-classical.

It also contains some surprises. Both The-Dream, who had two top five albums on the Billboard 200 in 2009-10, and Michael Wilson Hardy, better known as HARDY, are eligible. This award was created to recognise songwriters who primarily write for other artists, as opposed to songwriters who are also artists or producers.

So, how did they get on the list? This year, The-entries Dream’s focused on his work as a songwriter for Beyoncé, Brent Fayiaz, and Pusha T, while Hardy’s entries included songs for Blake Shelton and Brantley Gilbert featuring Jason Aldean. Only one of HARDY’s entries features him as an artist (Cole Swindell’s “Down to the Bar”).

Denisia “Blue June” Andrews and Brittany “Chi” Coney, members of the record production and songwriting duo Nova Wav, have entered. They sent in songs written for Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé.

The-Dream (five Grammys), Fauntleroy (four), Jason Ingram (three), Lindsey (three), McAnally (three), Hemby (two), David Leonard (two), Jonathan Smith (two), and Edgar Barrera are all eligible (one).

To demonstrate their versatility, the majority of eligible songwriters submitted credits that included collaborations with multiple artists. However, three of the writers have only one artist on their credits: Steve Cooper (The Group Fire), Ed Miranti (Vischious Fishious), and Adam Garzilli (Adam King).

Ryan Hurd’s submitted credits include four songs he wrote for his wife, Maren Morris, as well as one for Jordan Davis. The majority of Jozzy’s credits are for work with Latto, though the writer also has a Beyoncé credit.

Lauren Christy has submitted songs she wrote for artists such as Korn and Jenn Bostic. As part of The Matrix, Christy was nominated for producer of the year (non-classical) in 2003. (along with Graham Edwards and Scott Spock).

This new category is similar to the non-classical producer of the year category, which was introduced in 1974. Thom Bell, one of the architects of the Philadelphia soul sound, was the category’s first winner. The Recording Academy should consider themselves extremely fortunate to have such a prestigious first winner in this category.

The first round of voting in this and all other Grammy categories began on Thursday (Oct. 13) and will continue until Oct. 23. The nominees will be announced on November 15th. The final round of voting will take place from December 14 to January 4, 2023. The winners will be announced at the 65th Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023.

Here are the 62 songwriters competing for songwriter of the year. They are listed alphabetically.

Aarons, Sarah

Albert, Andy

Allen, Amy

Brittany “Chi” Coney and Denisia “Blu June” Andrews (of Nova Wav)

Edgar Barrera

Evan Kidd Bogart

Nija Charles

Desmond Child

Lauren Christy

Steve Cooper

Kat Dahlia

Sean Douglas

Tom Douglas

Ed Miranti

James Fauntleroy

Omer Fedi

Douglas Ford

James Aaron Foster

Edgar Galeano

Adam Garzilli

Natalie Nicole Gilbert

Andrew Goldstein

Ashley Gorley

Michael Wilson Hardy

Joyce V Harrison

Scott Harris

Natalie Hemby

Cory Henry

Jacob “Jkash” Hindlin

Sarah Hudson

Ethan Hulse

Ryan Hurd

Jason Ingram

Ink

Tobias Jesso Jr.

Steph Jones

Jozzy

David Leonard

Hillary Lindsey

Natalie Litza

Marcus Lomax

Madison Love

Shane McAnally

Chase McGill

Julia Michaels

Kayla Morrison

Michael Pollack

Elena Rose

Tia Scola

Shekinah Grace Moyes

Jonathan Smith

Skyler Stonestreet

Ali Tamposi

The-Dream

Theron Thomas

Jake Torrey

Justin Tranter

Laura Veltz

Billy Walsh

Besy Walter

Emily Warren

Victoria “Ryann” Zaro

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